mma / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Will Rousey/Holm Set an Attendance Record?
Image Credit: UFC
Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA, and I’m your host, Wyatt Beougher! Last week featured a battle of unbeatens, as Dino Zee took on Dan Plunkett, and while Dino jumped out to his usual lead, Dan managed to pull within a vote of Dino at one point during the voting period. As we’ve come to expect by now, though, Dino was able to pull out the win, taking a 22-16 victory, good for just over 56% of the vote. Great effort from both guys last week, and this week, Todd Vote and Robert Winfree look to continue that trend! They’ll be discussing Ronda Rousey trading barbs with Floyd Mayweather, the UFC’s investigation into domestic violence charges against Travis Browne, and more!
TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
“The Toddfather” Todd Vote
Contributor, Various 411 Zones
1-2-0
VS
BLUE CORNER
Robert “The Last Rider” Winfree
Contributor/Live Coverage Guru, 411 MMA Zone
2-1-0
1.) In spite of earning a finish via shoulder injury over ninth-ranked Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 74, the win did little to bolster Max Holloway’s standing in the featherweight division or in the eyes of UFC brass.
Todd Vote: FACT How could it? It isn’t like there was anything that Holloway did that directly led to the shoulder injury and stoppage. It’s an unfortunate situation, but had Holloway done something that directly led to the injury (a slam, a takedown, anything), we’d probably be having a different conversation right now. It’s not a knock on Holloway, or his ability, just the unfortunate nature of this particular situation. It’s hard to raise your stock when an opponent has to quit due to injury shortly into the first round. On top of that, those who aren’t familiar with Holloway learned very little about the guy from his first (I think?) UFC main event.
Robert Winfree: FICTION While the unfortunate nature of the injury finish does cast a shadow over the fight, there are a few things that still play into Holloway’s favor. First and foremos, this was his seventh win in a row, a number of consecutive wins that is rarely achieved in the UFC and we all know how much the UFC loves to promote guys via their stats. To further play into the statistical side of things, this gives Holloway six finishes during his seven-fight winning streak, and the UFC loves to hype finish rates so they’ve got that going on as well. The win should, and given the unfortunate reality of the UFC’s ranking system I do have to emphasize should, move Holloway into the top five rankings of the featherweight division, which is another easy sell. Finally there’s the fact that Holloway actually called out an opponent after the win, and he called out Frankie Edgar. I honestly can’t recall the last time someone called out Frankie Edgar, and Holloway did. While the injury was unfortunate Holloway has emerged in a strong overall position in the division.
2.) The UFC moving Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm from its tentative date at UFC 195 to UFC 193 in order to break the all-time UFC attendance record shows the faith that the company has in Rousey, and that faith is well-founded, as there is little chance the addition of Rousey to the card will not ensure a sellout at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium.
Todd Vote: FICTION It’s really hard to answer “FACT” or “FICTION” when the questions come at us in two parts, so I’ll go with FICTION here, because I can’t agree with the entire statement. [Editor’s Note: I like to call that the TBerg special. -W] This does speak on just how much faith the UFC has in Rousey as a draw, and while that faith is well-founded, I stop short of thinking her inclusion on the card will ensure a sellout. Rousey fights seem to always sell well, and even though I had Holm pegged as someone who will give Rousey trouble, the consensus seems to be it is too early for this fight to happen. Nobody is giving Holm much of a chance, and for that reason I think this fight will be drawing on the low end of the Ronda spectrum. All that said, I will stop short of saying Ronda will ensure a sellout at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium. Besides, am I the only one looking forward to the rematch with Hunt and Bigfoot more than this upcoming Rousey title defense?
Robert Winfree: FICTION I’m not sure this will sell out Etihad Stadium, which makes this one a tentative FICTION. Ronda Rousey is the biggest star the UFC has to offer right now, and if she can’t sell out this event no one could, but there’s still a few issues to overcome. The first issue is that with the UFC’s setup they’ve been talking about having to sell over 70,000 tickets to get a sellout, now while that is possible, I find it more likely that the UFC won’t sell every ticket. The most-attended UFC event in history right now is UFC 129, which was held in Toronto’s Rogers Center and drew over 55,000 people. That event was also incredibly stacked, with Georges St-Pierre defending the welterweight title against Jake Shields, Jose Aldo’s first title defense in the UFC against Mark Hominick, and a strong featured bout between Randy Couture and Lyoto Machida. UFC 193 is a strong card and Ronda’s star power shouldn’t be underestimated, but the card overall isn’t nearly as stacked right now as 129 was. I do think this event will break UFC 129’s record for attendance, probably without too much difficulty either, but I’m not confident in saying the event will completely sell out.
3.) It is unsurprising that the UFC-funded independent investigation into the domestic abuse allegations against Travis Browne turned up no conclusive evidence, allowing Browne to be reinstated.
Todd Vote: FACT Unfortunately, I think we all knew the investigation would turn up with no conclusive evidence as soon as Browne’s wife said she wasn’t going to file charges. If there are no criminal charges to worry about, how “thorough” do you suppose the investigation was? I’m not going to sit here and say whether or not Browne did any of the things he was accused of, because we will never know, short of it happening again. But no, it isn’t surprising that the investigation turned up no conclusive evidence.
Robert Winfree: FACT Independent investigations into domestic abuse situations are rarely going to be terribly enlightening. Browne’s wife hadn’t even gone to the proper authorities, instead posting her evidence on Instagram, so the thought of her opening up to her husband’s employers before the police is simply silly. I personally haven’t seen enough evidence to form a concrete opinion about this situation one way or the other, and that’s likely the result that the UFC’s investigation came to as well.
SWITCH!
4.) While the ongoing feud between Ronda Rousey and Floyd Mayweather has contained some entertaining barbs between the two, at this point, it is doing little to benefit Rousey’s standing in the public eye.
Robert Winfree: FICTION I wanted to go with FACT here, mostly because the verbal sparring between Rousey and Mayweather is tedious to those of us who pay attention to combat sports, but the reality is that the legions of casual fans eat this kind of stuff up. I know people who don’t care much for MMA but seem eager to talk about Ronda any time she says something about Mayweather; that keeps Ronda fresh in their minds. The important factor here has been Mayweather responding to Rousey’s comments, because if he’d just ignored her, this entire situation goes differently, but Mayweather has played back at Rousey and the interplay between the two of them has created a dynamic that casual fans can understand and latch on to. For as asinine as the argument is as to who would win a fight between Rousey and Mayweather, people are debating it. If anything Rousey and Mayweather continuing to trade insults just benefits both of them.
Todd Vote: FACT I’m actually tired of these two going back and forth like some middle school kids playing The Dozens at recess. The fight will never happen, not in a million years. So what is the point? Has some of it been amusing? Sure, but what is the end game? At what point does it stop, or do people start to spew venom at these two because they are tired of hearing it?
5.) If Valerie Letourneau is able to be ready for a fight with women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 195 in January, she would make the best possible replacement for the injured Claudia Gadelha.
Robert Winfree: FICTION Though it’s a likely outcome at this point if Gadelha is unable to make it to UFC 195. Looking over the strawweight rankings I came across one option that might be better, that being Tecia Torres. Torres is undefeated, predominantly a striker, and is ranked in the top five. Feel free to insert your own jokes about the UFC’s ranking system here but if the number five fighter is available, willing, and without a recent loss to the champion the higher ranked fighter should get the first opportunity to accept or refuse that fight. Letourneau is 3-0 in the UFC and 2-0 at strawweight, she’s had a couple of good showings and realistically should be ranked higher than number 10 (she’s currently ranked below Maryna Moroz who she just beat and Joanne Calderwood who lost to Moroz) but if Gadelha is unable to make the fight with Joanna Jedrzejczyk then I think Tecia Torres would be the best replacement as things currently stand, though I’ll hardly be complaining if it winds up being Letourneau.
Todd Vote: FICTION Why are we jumping down to the #10 ranked strawweight to get a replacement contender? Is Tecia Torres injured? I mean, I know that some of the top ten in the division have fights scheduled, not all of them do, and I see no reason to go all the way down to the #10 ranked woman to find a challenger. I just don’t see Letourneau as the best possible replacement, fight wise, or as far as drawing attention to the fight.
6.) Bellator’s plan to run 24 events in 2016, as mentioned by Scott Coker in an interview, represents an excellent compromise between a monthly schedule and the sporadic bursts of events they used to run prior to Coker replacing Bjorn Rebney.
Robert Winfree: FACT Pretty much without reservation this is FACT. The UFC currently runs on average an event every 12 days or so, averaged over an entire calendar year. Many people, myself included, have talked at length about the UFC oversaturating the market with events and how not only fan interest, but also overall card quality has suffered. Bellator’s new schedule will give them two events each month – that allows them to space out names and title fights, makes it easy for viewers to fall into a rhythm with regards to watching the product, and won’t burn out their viewers with too many events. Consistency of output along with quality of content makes for a very successful strategy, this is just smart decision making by everyone involved.
Todd Vote: FACT One of the biggest reasons I haven’t watched much Bellator lately, is because I am never aware of their events being on until it is too late. Knowing how many events they want to run in 2016 should help with everything from scheduling to promotion. Hopefully they can get word out about their shows a bit better.
So who won? Was Todd able to put together two wins in a row or did Robert move to 3-1? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!
And that’s it for today, but we’ll be back next week with another contest! As always, if there’s anything you’d like to see featured in a future edition, leave your statement in the comments and I’ll add it in. Let me know what you thought in the comments or on Twitter. And please, be sure to vote!
Also, follow 411’s various and sundry zones on Twitter for your daily 411 fix!
411 Wrestling Zone Twitter
411 Movies/TV Zone Twitter
411 Music Zone Twitter
411 Games Zone Twitter
411 MMA Zone Twitter
